This weeks Old School Sundays is dedicated to Gerry Smith, inventor of the smith decade, heres his run from the 88 AFA in Palmetto, Florida, plus a video of said Smith decade, which also went by the strange name of a "Cow Maneuver.".. enjoy!

Saturday, 29 January 2011

To conclude this internet revolution article, I asked York Uno for his perspective on the following question:

"As the proliferation of “video classics” floods the internet, I ask the question, what are the positives and negatives of this situation?"

York Uno:

It used to be expensive and take long time to produce a film. You had to buy a camera and editing software, took care of rights for music and burn them on DVD or VHS at the end. So only a few riders produced footages back then. This was not only a case for BMX, but also skateboarding and hip hop, such as other street cultures. Everything improves and gets easer day by day to release footages these days.

The improvement of technologies open up opportunities equally for us to get exposed wherever you are. You can film your riding and deliver your new tricks through internet right away. That convenience has influenced our recognitions against tricks.

You can check footages of riders all over the world at home. Your footage is watched on an equal footing with old footage and that breaks the boundary of perspective between “old” and “new” including editing skills.
Firstly I’m looking for a sample of sound when I work on composing music. As well as composing music, riders are looking for a trick for sampling.
A good part of old footages are available online, is that you can easily check “roots” of tricks which you are working on. You know what’s original. A bad part would be that you couldn’t produce a bare footage, without music and editing back then. (High standard was required for all footage at the time as it takes time and costs.) So rarity value of a footage may becomes pretty low now a days.
As to aspects of tricks, scuffing, switching,whiping, rolling and spinning are found in old footages. Turbine is only a few as Turbine is the latest techniques for Flatland.
Latest footages include valuable information about techniques and equipments. But they are found among bunch of “average” footages in fact. So you have to “judge” the value by yourself. There’s no creation acceptable for everyone, it means there’s no absolute definition of what’s “good” or “bad”. So you have to be a creator on your own to be able to judge the quality.

Editors note:

To conclude, everyone basically seems to be on the same path. Everyone is stoked that the old classics have been published online and continue to do so, yesterday Kala published the 2004 Intrikat Flatsphere dvd online, and this will continue.

I found that all these videos were being published right at the end of the decade, as if to archive a chapter in the history of flatland, December 2010 was a busy month in terms of the old "classics" being published online, I was blown away at one point, and starting to question whether I should be publishing these videos on the blog, hence this article was born.

Respect for the artists work has been mentioned a few times, i.e, if you are going to broadcast someones video online, take some pride in it, publish in good quality, and don't change the music.

As Bobby Carter said the internet revolution is here, ride that wave, we are nowadays spoilt for choice and it's all for free, apart from the cost of your internet connection of course, when I grew up riding, there were no videos in the beginning, just a monthly magazine, so a flatlanders inspiration now is far greater than 27 years ago, this can only be a great thing for future generations. I don't see any negative to that.

Because the internet is so vast, a lot of videos can be "slept" on, whereas videos back in the day were so few and far between, these videos would be studied, now a video edit is forgotten about a few days after it is published, not even that in some cases. Riders are already looking for the next fix. We are spoilt.

Distribution of information is the biggest bonus for me, whilst I don't think you will ever beat the feel of a printed page, and having that dvd in your hand, the fact riders "worldwide" can access new and old videos right away providing they have a good internet connection, is a really great thing.

Thanks to everyone who took the time to get back to me on this debate, some healthy conclusions have been drawn from this.

Thursday, 27 January 2011

What a treat! Kala does not stop! What a dvd by Chad J, look at some of these sections now and.... Desolneux, O'Brien, Worsley, Penonzek, the list goes on, grab a cuppa and flick throught these sections.

"Today it was all about trying to repeat what I did yesterday. My very first opposite hitchhiker Juggler. In between attempts I revisited a few links that I have only completed a hand full of times. The only way I will get those tricks consistent is to keep on doing them. I also pushed my self thanks to Effraim for his comment on Flatmatters: Lets see multiples rad dad! So I am going for it! Thanks E for the PUSH. One day I hope to be able to push you back!"

Flatmatters is not only about the pros, Brad's a new face to me, check out the clips, nice level of skill, keep the dates coming Brad! And more imporatntly keep pushing, thanks for the shoutout on the second clip!

I first met Yasunari in 2008, at the KOG finals in tokyo, he was competing in the expert class, and was riding as I entered the arena, already I could see he was very skilled, I can't remember the last time I saw a double in front of bar whiplash to halfpacker in the expert class, but this was Japan, and was healthy to see, that day I got a lot energy out of watching the expert class, Yasunari placed in the top 3 that day, and turned pro the following day, nowadays he is a lot more famous appearing in the 2011 Flatland calendar, online edits, sponsored by Quamen, and also running the jimalog blog, time for an interview.

Firstly introduce yourself please?

Hello everyone, nice to meet you all! First of all, I'd like to say thank you to flatmatters for giving me this opportunity.

My name is Yasunari Ishijima. I just turned 25 years old last month.

Tell me about the name “Jimalog: what does that mean?

It's the abbreviation for Ishijima Weblog. I thought it was too long to call and made it shorter.

I'm originally from the countryside named Abiko city in Chiba prefecture.

My main home spot is Maihama is where I'm living in right now and I ride with Moto Sasaki and Yoshihiro Shinde often there.

Do you just have one riding spot you ride, or do you have multiple riding spots?

Not only one spot. You can see my current riding spots on my latest web edit I have three spots.

My home spot, a public park in Maihama, there are always people and kids walking around and cutting through. It's a distraction and dangerous. Other two spots are no pedestrians so I'd prefer to ride there lately.

How do you deal with winter riding?

No particular things for the winter. Fortunately, it doesn't snow or rain much in Chiba I can ride all seasons without any worries.

I feel very lucky about that.

How did you discover flatland riding?

I first saw BMX on TV was a BMX park contest at X-games. I got really impressed with it.

I always liked riding my bike and riders on TV were doing tricks on small bikes was looking cool to me although there was no skate park around my home and I started riding flatland.

Three years ago I was in japan for the KOG finals and you were riding expert and just made the step up to pro, how are you finding riding now as a pro level rider?

Wow! you remembered that!? (editors note: yes of course :)…)

Yeah, I turned KOG pro from the KOG final 2008. Well, I've never thought of my riding is pro level or not and I don't know if I've found my style or I'm being able to express my style with my tricks. I feel I need more skills sometime though.

Your riding of course developed, huge progression on the infront of bar whiplashes, what are you working on these days?

I've been working on the infront of bar whiplash variations coz it's fun tricks to do also I like switches with brakes. I'm trying so many things.

You've seen lots of flatland videos old and new. Which video you grew up with?

List your favorite riders, If you pick your top five riders who would that be?

Dan Rigby, Cory Stratychuk, Cory Fester,Simon O'Brien, Brian Rybak.

You've been riding for 11 years and what is the motivation to keep on going?

It's simply fun. Not only when I'm trying new tricks, I enjoy it enough with my certain tricks. Of course I try tricks I've never done before sometimes.

How do you describe your riding style?

Smooth & Stable.

What riding style you aim to be?

Simple & better .

I don't want my combos complicated and want to make it look good.

I want to ride like that.

Do you see yourself is going brakeless in the future?

I don't think so. I like braking switches and riding with a brake. Some might do the switches without brakes butＩdare to try them with a brake.

Can you tell us about your bike setup?

Not about setting but, my current frame Quamen bikes Clad G9, that is the best and the most controllable frame I've ever ridden.

I really like the geo especially the lower top tube I think it will help my progression.

How did you get hooked up with Quamen bikes and Dig it?

2 years ago, at KOG round 2 2009. That was my second KOG since I turned pro, I was luckily made it to final then.

After the contest while I was talking to everyone, saying hello and good bye I had an opportunity to talk to Skip who is the owner of Dig-it BMX shop, he kindly asked me if I was interested in joining Quamen team. I was interested in Quamen products and looking from outside I'd always thought the team was having fun. I was pleased to be a part of the team. Since then I'm on the team.

How do you see flatland in ten years? I mean which style or tricks will be the mainline?

I don't think I'm good enough to answer this but, riding style will be more multipolarzed. In fact, the new style of riding "pegless style" popped up in the last couple of years. Not mainline, I think riders will develop more individualities.

Do you think you will participate in events and contest outside of Japan?

Beside I have a family and a job, I want to participate in them once in my life.

Which event or country you want to go?

Canada, my friend Takuji Kasahara and Akihiko Takahashi, Kazuma Nakajima they went to the Flatland unlimited contest last year and I hear the stories often and it sounds really fun and very exciting. The contest is very attracted me. Also Cory Fester and Gregory Leuschner visited us last year so why not?

Last words?

First off, I'd like to say thank you to Quamen bikes owner Mr Zenta and Dig-it owner Skip for treating me good always. Thank you very much for your help I really appreciate it. And to my wife Yasuko and my parents, riders who I often ride with. I'd like to thank you to them also.